Published with Permission
\nWritten by Dianne Craft, MA, CNHP
\nwww.diannecraft. org<\/p>\n
One of the most puzzling situations a homeschooling mother finds herself in is when she has a child who can read the words in a book but cannot answer the questions or tell her what has just been read. These moms frequently hear the phrase \u201cI don\u2019t remember\u201d when queried about the reading material.<\/p>\n
When working with bright, hardworking fourth- through eighth-graders in my reading class, I often had students who were experiencing this particular reading difficulty. I realized that these students were not proficient at converting the words they were reading into a \u201cmovie\u201d in their head, as the rest of us do when we read. They were merely doing \u201cword calling\u201d much of the time. I found that \u201cmovie making\u201d was a skill that could be developed in them, using an easy fifteen-minute-a-day exercise. This exercise did not involve paper or pencil but only the use of the brain.<\/p>\n
\u201cWord calling\u201d is a left-brain auditory task, while creating a picture or movie of those words is the responsibility of the right-brain hemisphere. I merely showed them how to create a seamless flow of words to pictures as they were reading. You can do this at home, very easily.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/span>Converting Words to Pictures<\/strong><\/p>\n When a child or teenager regularly reads a passage well but \u201ccan\u2019t remember what is said,\u201d we know that he is using an inefficient strategy for comprehension. He often is trying to remember the exact words he read, rather than converting the words into pictures. Whether he is reading for recreation or information, he must change the words he reads into images in his mind. The more these images involve the senses (sight, sound, smell, feel), the greater will be the comprehension of the passage.<\/p>\n Daily Training Sessions<\/strong><\/p>\n The following steps can be used with a student to develop his ability to change the words he hears or reads into pictures for good comprehension. You will be surprised how fast his comprehension skills will improve after just a few weeks of these \u201ctraining sessions.\u201d<\/p>\n This method works well with one child or a group of children or teenagers.<\/p>\n Step 1: Parent\/Teacher Reads a Passage Aloud<\/strong><\/p>\n Choose material to read to the child that is interesting and very descriptive. Standing in front of him as you read to him, have the child sit upright and keep his eyes upward, creating a \u201cmovie\u201d in his mind. You can pretend that you are looking at the projection screen in a movie theatre to further aid him in his \u201cmovie making.\u201d Read a sentence or two aloud. Then ask him a few questions until you are sure he is seeing the pictures of the words you read, in detail.<\/p>\n For example, this is how your training session might look if you are reading aloud a passage about a beaver. Your first sentence you read may be, \u201cThe beaver is the largest rodent in North America.\u201d Stop reading, and point to the imaginary screen, and say, \u201cOn our screen, let\u2019s draw a quick sketch of North America. Now put the beaver on that map.\u201d<\/p>\n Your next sentence in this passage will read, \u201cAn adult beaver weighs from 35\u201370 pounds.\u201d Stop reading and point up to the imaginary screen and say, \u201cNow, use the \u2018zoom lens\u2019 of your brain camera and write \u201835\u201370\u2019 on the beaver\u2019s coat. Let\u2019s use white paint to do this. Is your paint dripping? Oh well, he\u2019ll wash it off soon.\u201d<\/p>\n The next sentence in the text will be, \u201cBecause of its large lungs, a beaver can remain submerged in water for fifteen minutes.\u201d Stop reading and look up at the screen and help the child see this in his head by saying, \u201cNow we need to change our scene. Let\u2019s make a picture of a pond, with beavers around it. Do you see it on your screen? Now have one of the beavers slip into the pond. See him down on the bottom of the pond. Picture a large clock next to him. Have the hands of the clock move from 12:00 to 12:15.\u201d<\/p>\n As you do this training, instruct your child how to \u201cmove\u201d his pictures and \u201cfreeze\u201d them when he wants to notice something. You both will have great fun with this!<\/p>\n When you get to the end of a passage you\u2019re reading, instruct your child to \u201crewind\u201d the movie, to answer some questions about the passage. As you ask the questions, direct his gaze upward as he reviews his \u201cmovie\u201d for the answers. This is the exciting part. Your child will be amazed at how easy it is to answer the questions.<\/p>\n Step 2: The Student Reads Aloud to You<\/strong><\/p>\n After your child has demonstrated proficiency in converting words to pictures as he hears them, he is ready to read the words himself while creating his \u201cmovie.\u201d Select a reading passage that is easy for him to read so that he can concentrate on making pictures rather than sounding out new words. Repeat the process you used before, stopping him after he has read a sentence or two, to ask him some questions about his \u201cmovie.\u201d Direct his gaze upward to see what he just read. Be sure he gives you detailed pictures. As this becomes easier and his recall becomes more accurate, you can increase the number of sentences he reads before you ask questions.<\/p>\n Step 3: The Student Reads Silently<\/strong><\/p>\n When your child is successfully reading aloud while making good pictures in his mind, you can have him read a passage silently, asking him to stop every few lines or so, and asking him to tell you about the pictures he has made. If the pictures are detailed and accurate, you can have him read to the end of the passage uninterrupted. At the end of the reading, have him \u201crewind\u201d his film and tell you all that he has read. You will be surprised at the things he remembers! His \u201cwords to pictures\u201d process will soon become automatic. The upward eye movement will soon be unnecessary for the storage and retrieval of reading material.<\/p>\n Remember: No pictures=No answers; Few pictures=Few answers; Great pictures=Great Answers.<\/p>\n This strategy is simple, but very effective. Expect to see great changes in the comprehension and retention of reading material in your children.<\/p>\n Dianne Craft has a master\u2019s degree in learning disabilities. She speaks widely at homeschool conventions across the country. Her books, <\/em>Brain Integration <\/em>Therapy Manual, Right Brain Phonics <\/em>Program, and her DVDs, <\/em>Understanding <\/em>& Helping the Struggling Learner, Teaching the Right Brain Child, Smart Kids\u2014 Who Hate to Write, and <\/em>The Biology of Behavior have helped hundreds of families<\/em> remove learning blocks in their struggling<\/em> children at home. Visit her website, www.diannecraft.org<\/a>, for many articles on children<\/em> and learning and to download her<\/em> free Daily Lesson Plans for the Struggling<\/em> Reader and Writer.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Published with Permission Written by Dianne Craft, MA, CNHP www.diannecraft. org One of the most puzzling situations a homeschooling mother finds herself in is when she has a child who can read the words in a book but cannot answer the questions or tell her what has just been read. These moms frequently hear the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,47,84,83],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-classroom-help","category-informative","category-preschoolers","category-special-needs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1190"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1192,"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1190\/revisions\/1192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansashomeschool.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}